Large Law Firm Increases Document Transfer Efficiency and Improves Attorney and Client Communication

“The results of implementing Biscom’s fax server have been very positive. The turn around time for documents to be sent or received is almost instantaneous, so that now we can even update documents during conference calls. Plus, the ability to distribute documents to clients and colleagues from our PCs as easily as sending email has really increased our productivity.”

- Steve Taylor, Information Systems Manager

Background

In the legal field, client confidentiality is the cornerstone of the profession, at the same time correspondence must still be passed between law firms and the clients they serve in order for business to be transacted. Because security and integrity of legal contracts, briefs, pleadings and other documents must be maintained, the communications methods utilized are of paramount importance.

Based in Denver, Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP (RJ&L) is one of the ten largest legal practices in Colorado and the state’s oldest continuing legal partnership. (On a side note, this philanthropic firm is celebrating its 100th year by giving $100,000 to a diverse range of nonprofit organizations chosen by company employees.)

Challenges

Steve Taylor is the Information Systems Manager for RJ&L, and it is his job to keep communications between the attorneys and all other employees (approximately 160 combined), and the firm’s clients flowing smoothly. A large percentage of the documentation that is passed back and forth between attorneys and their clients is sent via fax, as it is the most efficient legally recognized communication method.

RJ&L used to use traditional fax machines in their offices, but were becoming frustrated by their inefficiencies, so they began to look for a more viable solution. There were two main concerns with the paper-based fax machines that they wanted to solve: reception issues, both in terms of timeliness and routing to the correct recipient(s), and information accountability whereby both the attorneys and their staffs have copies of faxed documents to create a traceable archive of information, and ensure documents are received. They also wanted a solution that would integrate with their Novell GroupWise email system.

“We evaluated several fax server options, but Biscom was the only offering to satisfy all of our requirements,” explained Taylor. “The FAXCOM system was the more solid business offering providing the best GroupWise integration. We were also influenced in our purchasing decision based upon Biscom’s flexible hardware options, and the fact that industry-leading Dialogic fax boards are all that is used in the FAXCOM servers.”

Biscom sent RJ&L a fully prepped turnkey fax server that Taylor said was installed “very smoothly” by his department. Biscom’s pre- and post-sales support team answered his questions, and talked him through some fax line routing issues “promptly and on the money.” And his colleagues experienced virtually no learning issues to begin using the new system; he just sent around instructions via his network email, and “they caught on very quickly.”

The Results

“The results of implementing the fax server have been very positive,” stated Taylor. “The turn around time for documents to be sent or received is almost instantaneous so that now we can even update documents during conference calls. Plus, the ability to distribute documents to clients and colleagues from our PCs as easily as sending email has really increased our productivity. The fax server also assists with the easy creation of an electronic document archive, and helps assure fax reception via fax log files.”

There are many advantages to implementing an enterprise network fax solution: protection from viruses, providing a more secure delivery method than email, a verifiable transmission log, one-to-one connectivity and the convenience and productivity of computer desktop delivery and transmission.